The latest news comes from the computer and printing company Hewlett-Packard, which recently announced it's working on a project it calls the "Central Nervous System for the Earth." In coming years, the company plans to deploy a trillion sensors all over the planet.

'Smart dust' aims to monitor everything

By John D. Sutter, CNNMay 3, 2010

Palo Alto, California (CNN) -- In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.

These "smart dust" particles, as he called them, would monitor everything, acting like electronic nerve endings for the planet. Fitted with computing power, sensing equipment, wireless radios and long battery life, the smart dust would make observations and relay mountains of real-time data about people, cities and the natural environment.

Now, a version of Pister's smart dust fantasy is starting to become reality.

Hartwell, the HP researcher, says the only way people can combat huge problems like climate change and biodiversity loss is to have more information about what's going on."Frankly, I think we have to do it, from a sustainability and environmental standpoint," he said.Even though the first application of HP's "Central Nervous System for the Earth" project will be commercial, Hartwell says the motives behind smart dust are altruistic."People ask me what my job is, and I say, well, I'm going to save the world," he said..

More information is not always the key, its just one of the ingredients for a solution. What we do with information, how we sift through it and select what's important, is perhaps more crucial.

The future task of humanity with regards to information won't be gathering it, but filtering, classifying and interpreting it. Not to mention ultimately disposing of it - who the heck is going to back all that stuff up?

"Hi, Engineer #2453652? Can you restore the Asia-Pacific region from last year? It should be on tapes 23943 - 35460."

As a secondary topic, I'm fascinated by the notion of the eventual complete end of "privacy" as a concept. I've been trying to envision a world where every individual's being is completely monitored and recorded at all times, and considering whether "privacy" and "secrecy" would have any relevance in such a context. Not so much for the trivial stuff, sex and credit ratings and so on, but the notion that there would be no such thing as deniability - every citizen is Sartre's perfect existential hero at all times, always having to own the entirity of their life's actions, in public to others, at all times and places.

@WG - True, but there are some fascinating aspects to it. The thought of being caught naked in a crowd is horrifying, but not so much if everyone else is naked as well. What makes the lack of privacy currently alarming is the asymmetry of it - the whole possibility of identity theft, blackmail and invasion of privacy depends on some being exposed but not others.

Imagine a world where HP or a similar entity does release this swarm of nanoparticles - but leaves the system open for anyone to use. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, world leaders are as equally exposed as the average Joe, and *anyone* can see anything about anyone. There's no secret listener, because there's no secrecy, and no comparative advantage.

Not really advocating for it, but it does make an interesting thought experiment.